not necesarily. Surely he put up great stats but those numbers were inflated in a smaller league with a lot less talent. Wilt cooked him every time they met. You can't really tell with these '60s players because of blocks. imo Rodman is the GOAT defender

no i have a personal top 5 that is based off of my observation and atmosphere of the nba at the time, Jordan is considered the greatest of all time because he played with slow ass crackas and people called Bill one of the goats because he played with AVERAGE 6'2 and 6'3 guys that could jump higher then a snail with stage 4 autism, it's all about the time period and the players that are in it.

Not to pick a fight but not necessarily, back then there weren't so many people trying to get in the NBA and people weren't coming from overseas either. Now there are far more people training to go to the NBA since they were little with better training methods and equipment then back then. Also, Bill Russell got first round byes a lot of the time when today many teams still have to tire themselves out playing the first round. But maybe it was tougher back then as guys like Wilt and Kareem played. Honestly, I am not really sure just making an educated guess. Check out Bleacher Report's article on it if you want, that's where I got my information from.

to be honest, I respect BILL RUSSELL the PLAYER perfectly, but this card man:
- can't dribble/control the ball
- too short
- can't stretch
So it's just gonna be a defensive power forward. Just like a rodman you can get for 30k

right. and if you watch clips of russell like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWelUNrJUMM you clearly see that his ball control and speed with ball should each be at least 40 higher, which would have been accurate. as of now with his poor ball control and speed with ball driving with him isn't even an option.

His best teammate was Bob Cousy from 57-63 and John Havlicek from 64-69. They're greats, but his second best teammate at any given pont was either Bill Sharman, Tom Heinson or Sam Jones. They're good, but you wouldn't expect those teams to go 5-0 against the Jerry West / Elgin Baylor Lakers unless Russell was truly as great as they say he was.

I'm going to assume you know nothing about Bill Russell. Probably the greatest passing centre of all time after Bill Walton. He would grab the rebound and throw it the length of the court like Kevin Love today but 3-4 times a q. He averaged 4.3 assists a game during his career which is great for a centre but the thing to remember is they judged assists much differently then. If the recipient dribbled after he caught the pass if was no longer an assist, so he would've averaged 7-8. He also was the key to Boston's fast break offence which was unstoppable and they'd get out and run every possession. Russell would grab the rebound/block and sprint up the court (he was one of the fastest players in the league) and find his teammates or dunk.

He could dunk over anybody, he did a free throw line layup where he hurdled his defender. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2AlFrOj5Mc Here's another video of him dunking over people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVR7rU6CkmI&t=3s His PPG is also lower because in Red Auerbach's offence everybody had a very specific role. Russell's job was to get it to Jones, Havlicek and Heinsohn, the scorers. He could've averaged well over 20 and he did score a lot in big games. Also the amount of extra possessions he created on the glass would be ridiculous.

Finally because nobody else had to worry about defence/rebounding his teammates could focus on offence which changed the career for many players. Don Nelson was almost out of the league then he came to the Celtics and Bill told him only worry about offence. He had a 8 point increase in points the next season and became a key part of 5 championship and became a hall of famer

He was a great defender and great rebounder. Possibly the best defender of all time. But when you're a center and average 15 points in that era on 44% shooting, but are still considered by some as the best center of all time, you're overrated